Topic: Advice on macgyver mic setup?

[anthill]

I was going to write Chris Church an email, but thought I'd make it an open letter instead. 

I'm buying some binaural mics, mostly for field recordings (like http://www.quietamerican.org's stuff).  Subject matter will be outdoors/nature, city/cultural, personal interviews, and some live music (but not hardcore concerts like you guys).  I'd like my kit to be very portable, fairly rugged, and mountable either on my head, a flat surface, or posts/trees.

My recorder is an Iriver H120, and I'd like to run the mics directly into it if possible

The Sound Professionals 'Goosenoose' looks incredibly handy for its compactness and mounting 'flexibility' .  I can see this working reasonably well for under-collar, hat-mounted HRTF, or wrapping around a lamppost.  With the cheap Panasonic omnis, handling noise wouldn't be too bad, would it?

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/category.cgi?item=ISI-SGNM-1

But SP are in the states, and I'm in Toronto, and after hearing so many good things on taperssection.com about Church Audio I'd prefer to buy from him.  Chris, do you know of anything similar to the ISI-SGNM-1's dual gooseneck mounting setup?

[Church-Audio]

I was going to write Chris Church an email, but thought I'd make it an open letter instead. 

I'm buying some binaural mics, mostly for field recordings (like http://www.quietamerican.org's stuff).  Subject matter will be outdoors/nature, city/cultural, personal interviews, and some live music (but not hardcore concerts like you guys).  I'd like my kit to be very portable, fairly rugged, and mountable either on my head, a flat surface, or posts/trees.

My recorder is an Iriver H120, and I'd like to run the mics directly into it if possible

The Sound Professionals 'Goosenoose' looks incredibly handy for its compactness and mounting 'flexibility' .  I can see this working reasonably well for under-collar, hat-mounted HRTF, or wrapping around a lamppost.  With the cheap Panasonic omnis, handling noise wouldn't be too bad, would it?

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/category.cgi?item=ISI-SGNM-1

But SP are in the states, and I'm in Toronto, and after hearing so many good things on taperssection.com about Church Audio I'd prefer to buy from him.  Chris, do you know of anything similar to the ISI-SGNM-1's dual gooseneck mounting setup?

I dont make a stand mount for my mics.. I do however have a tripod option that puts a standard tripod thread onto my microphones so you can use them in a interview type situation. I would recommend my VFM mics for this they are $99.99 + 12.00 shipping. I can make them ether high sensitivity 100db 1% distortion or low sensitivity 114db .5% distortion. They should work great with your iriver. But if you need something smaller my mini probinural mic would work well too. Handling noise is not that bad but again that does depend on how much gain you need. It has never been an issue before with my mics.

[anthill]

Thanks for the quick reply, Chris.  I wish I could mount your mics on SP's gooseneck. 

[Church-Audio]

Thanks for the quick reply, Chris.  I wish I could mount your mics on SP's gooseneck. 

Why not? They are about the same diameter.

[anthill]

Why not? They are about the same diameter.

Hmm, good point.  I'm not entirely sure how the gooseneck is assembled, but from this picture:

http://www.soundprofessionals.ca/images/gold/thumb/ISI-SGNM-1ALL.jpg

it looks like the terminations of the gooseneck is a little different depending on the mic body used. Compared with the standard SP (Panasonic) omnis, your VFM mic bodies do look roughly about the same size:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/VFM-STEREO-MIC-MADE-4-MINIDISC-MP3-DAT-RECORDERS_W0QQitemZ260100817125QQihZ016QQcategoryZ3281QQcmdZViewItem

I worry that the 'mini shotgun' nose of your housings might be tough to integrate with a gooseneck, though.

Your VFM mics have a 72dB S/N ratio, 10dB better than the SP omnis, which sounds very attractive - how do you compare S/N ratios to "A-weighted Output Noise" values?  The Shure WL-183, which is highly recommended for nature recordings, has 22.5dB Output noise, but no S/N numbers from the manufacturer:

http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WiredMicrophones/us_pro_WL183_content

I guess I'll just order the goosenoose w/ SP high-sensitivity standard omnis and see how it goes.  If they seem modify-able, maybe I can retrofit them with some CCSounds later?